THERE IS NOTHING EXTRAORDINARY ABOUT A LION THAT ROARS

?Many Cameroonians are hailing and saluting the recent victory of the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon over the Sele??o of Brazil at the ongoing Qatar 2022 World Cup. Others like this writer believe that whoever is celebrating this win over Brazil is part of the problem with the country. A reason for this belief : the yawning gap between the announced goal of participation and the outcome of this ego-boosting win. Of course, this belief thrives on the back of many other reasons.

???????????????The goal

???????????????Immediately Cameron qualified for Qatar, Cameroon Football Federation president - legendary FC Barcelona forward Samuel Eto’o - was clear: the goal is to “bring home the World Cup.” Whether or not this goal was to be taken metaphorically or literally doesn’t matter. Samuel Eto’o reiterated it severally, even pleading with naysayers to keep their pessimism and allow optimists like himself to dare dream. At best, this goal was a motivational incentive, an indication that the Indomitable Lions would show up in Qatar not just to make up the numbers but to grab every chance they had. Therefore the goal was not a prestige win over Brazil but ?qualification to the second round at the very least. Consequently, how then can we receive elimination from the World Cup with such elation? Especially when we look at the main reason for the widespread joy or content with this elimination: a win over Brazil! This begs the question:

?????????????What is the value of a World Cup win over Brazil?

?????????????????The answer is readily NONE after you have admitted some facts. Brazil is a formidable team, FIFA’s top ranked team in men’s football worldwide, and a five-time World Cup winner. However, victory over Brazil isn’t worth anything substantial and lasting for Cameroon. In fact, this dramatic one nil win over Brazil is a financial loss and marketing loss. The elimination was synonymous with the loss of extra 4 million US, ?which would have been added to the 9 million US Dollars given to every team eliminated at the group stage, had the team progressed to the round of 16 and extra 8 million US dollars had it repeated the fit of qualifying for the quarter finals like it did during the 1990 World Cup. By crashing out of the World Cup so brilliantly, the team also lost the extra branding it would have gotten from sustained exposure to the lights and camera of international media.

???????????????This strange excitement with the win over Brazil is even more disturbing when you realise that this wasn’t the first time the Indomitable Lions were felling this giant. ?It was in fact a needless repeat of a fit we have performed twice before :the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and the Confederations Cup in 2006. Dissection of the 2000 win over Brazil only further highlights the deserved irrelevance of this recent win. The Indomitable Lions were one man down, had a local coach and all the odds in the world of logic and football punditry staked against them. This Qatar 2022 win is at best a rebroadcast of the 2000 win. The fact that this umpteenth victory comes at the World Cup shouldn’t be an extra feather on our cap because the Confederations Cup in 2006 was a locking of horns between the national teams too. You therefore must come to the realisation that the team we absolutely had to beat and feast over was Switzerland. A sad fact among many other sad facts when you come to think of it.

??????The Many Other Sad Facts

??????????????????????Some Cameroonians have littered social media with several arguments that defend celebration of this elimination-inducing win. That said, these arguments are bubbles that explode so easily when prodded for depth and substance with incisive anti-celebration arguments.

??????????????????Some of the most wide-spread arguments for celebration are that the victory has enabled Cameroon leave the competition head high; that it spells great things for future competitions and that it puts Cameroon heads and shoulders above all other (rival) African teams. This argument stands until you realise Cameroon’s position as a flagbearer for African football on the world stage has been established since 1990 when Roger Milla and co reached the quarter finals, falling to England. Consequently, this position needs reassertion with at least a qualification for the semi-finals not another victory over Brazil we have defeated on two different stages before.

???????????The shallowness of these pro-celebration arguments is even more distressing because it seems to reveal a pattern, a habit, a trend in our response to serial failure: complacency. Cameroonians seem to be so easily placated with less whereas they are capable of so much more. In 1990, a pride evenly made up of local and international lions heroically stormed the third to the last stage of world football. Fast forward almost 25 years, and a pride of predominantly international lions have not made not it beyond the group stage. How can we be celebrating this exceptional ability to always do less with more?

?????????????One last thing…

????????The context of this celebration too is unpalatable to a keen observer because it seems to fit into another pattern: repeated use of football to distract Cameroonians from realities in and around football. This celebration has tilted the focus of Cameroonians away from the standard chaos in the Lions’ den every time they are involved in a competition. Qatar 2022 was no different. Remember the André Onana saga? While Cameroonians relished beating Brazil, a law was passed in Cameroon that will increase the price of fiscal stamps for example. Sounds familiar?

?????????????????Improvement in any field demands result orientedness, a passion for unimpeachable excellence and an unflinching commitment to growth. Celebrating a win laced with elimination doesn’t show the traits cited above. Does it?

????????????????????Finally…

??????????????????On an ordinary day, there is nothing wrong with bragging about felling a giant unless you have felled that giant before. There is nothing wrong about claiming to be first unless that first remains your only first almost three decades after it was realised. But there is something fundamentally wrong with clapping for a lion that roars. This is because there is nothing extraordinary about a lion that roars. ROAR: that’s what a lion is supposed to do every day. Clap for it for roaring and it may never bother to defy the norm and reach new milestones.